Laurie Furber, a former Pottery Barn executive and current owner of Northern California-based Elsie Green House & Home, started her company with a passion for carefully curated and sustainable found objects. When faced with a new office space, Laurie transformed the blank slate into a workspace that felt like home using clever storage tricks and functional vintage pieces.

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"When we moved into our office, it was a very generic room with white sheetrock walls, an acoustic ceiling and louvered doors," Laurie says. She covered a bare wall with an over-the-top inspiration board and filled the room with vintage pieces that are both beautiful and secretly functional. "The vintage table in the center of the room is about 2" higher than the average dining table, so it's great for work that requires standing," she adds.

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Laurie created the inspiration wall on a Sunday afternoon, organizing all images by color. "If I'm looking for inspiration for something blue, I just look in the blue section," Laurie says. A reclaimed wood dining table serves as a desk, with a workspace that is wide enough for two. "We use our upholstered dining chairs at the desk because they're sturdy and comfy, and prettier than your usual office chair," she adds.

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Laurie removed the existing closet doors and painted the wall and closet interior in Benjamin Moore's Aegean Teal. To streamline the traffic patterns in the small space, she centralized all storage in the closet nook and along the adjacent wall. "We use all of our own vintage containers inside the closet to give us a constant feel for how it is to live with our product," Laurie says.

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"The closet is the hardest working part of the room," Laurie says. "Everything we need to run our office is stored here in clear containers so we can find them." A slatted crate does double duty, keeping ribbons sorted and ready for easy use.

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Laurie found this vintage postal sorting desk on a sourcing trip in France. The small cubbies, originally used for sorting mail, are perfectly sized for sorting swatches, paint decks and other supplies. "And conveniently, it's exactly as deep as our sheets of tissue and our school paper cutter," she adds.

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"Our 11-year-old daughter often comes to work with us after school, or on summer days, so of course she needs her own desk too."

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Thoughtful packaging and gift wrap is a trademark of Elsie Green. Laurie keeps a large roll of blue paper on a metal paper cutter at her central wrapping station. Satin ribbon in a corresponding blue, and kraft colored tissue accent Laurie's signature wrapping style for gifts.

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